Feathers everywhere
by Alannada
Summary: Manwë babysits Melkor. Baby Melkor sits on Manwë.
1. Feathers everywhere

Feathers everywhere  
Summary:  
Manwë babysits Melkor. Baby Melkor sits on Manwë.

A/N:  
The request on .com:  
"au where melkor after the 3 age chaining turned to a neetish todler instead, small drabble please! ps, melkor is the best parent fic caused this au"  
The story was originally posted on AO3 (2015-08-24)

o0o  
Chapter 1: Feathers everywhere

The feathers were everywhere.

Manwë stormed through the door to the big day-room just to see more feathers - big and small ones, colorful like flowers in Yavanna's Pastures. as he walke in the gust of wind caused some of them dance and change positions.

"Melkor?!" the voice of thee Vala was loud like thunder, filled with worry and a bit of irritation. Where was he?

Manwë was away only for a second, to bring his brother a warm meal. And when he returned there was no sign of Melkor in the dinning room. Manwë took a few steps into the day-room to check the whole area. He passed by a high bookshelf and froze as he heard a silent giggle.

Just then he realized his mistake - a light body almost magially appeared on his shoylders, wrapping it's small limbs around his form and giggling more. A cape made of birds' feathers (the result of two days of constant sewing of all inhabitants pf Ilmarin and currently almost entirely destroyed) covered his shoulders and back as Melkor grabbed his long blode hair in his small fists.

"I'm a birdie, 'Anwey! Let's flyyy!" he nudged the Vala to move.

A long sigh of the Vala made the feathers in the room dance once more.

"You must first spell my name properly, Melkor. Then we can fly back to the dining room where something tasty is waiting for you," he smiled. Melkor was silent for a second, not sure if he wanted to play or eat sweets more. Then he decided:

"Manwë! Take me there! Hurry up, someone can eat my sweets!"

"Aye, my birdie. We're flying there," Manwë obeyed him already thinking how to convince Melkor that the carrot soup is as tasty as brownies.


	2. A half of two

Chapter 2: A half of two

o0o

Manwë stepped on a wolf and the beast made a noise of protest. He quickly lifted his leg and looked down in surprise at the toy. It was a simple stuffed wolf, it's fur dark grey. It seemed Aulë had put something inside of him which was making noises.

Beside the wolf there was a white lamb; more toys were laying around this  
couple, arragned as if they were telling a tale. Manwë was thinking about the nature of this tale for a second before noticing a bowl covered in brown substance.

And a boy holding it in two hands covered in it as well. Melkor's face lit up as he gazed upon his brother. There were brown dots on hs cheeks, nose and chin.

"I found chocolate," Melkor announced. There was still some chocolate in the bowl so Manwë walked close to his brother. "Wanna some?"

It was a rare moment of generousity for Melkor, but he was willing to share even sweets with his brother. Manwë sat down and picked Melkor up to put him on his lap. Then together they devoured the chocolate.

The bowl was empty, laying aside, as the two Ainur were resting on the fluffy carpet, falling slowly into sleep, Manwë almost wrapped around Melkor. It was the vision Varda saw after entering the room and stepping on the wolf. She quickly moved back her leg and looked at her husband and brother-in-law.

"Oh," Melkor tried to hide under Manwë's arm.

"Melkor forund chocolate. I am afraid we ate it all," Manwë added and sat up. "I am sorry..."

"You should be, you ate a half of your birthday gift," the Valie replied and chuckled. "Luckily the other half is hidden far away."

Melkor looked at the bowl and then nudged Manwë's side.

"Make her tell us where the other bowl of chocolate is," he suggested in a whisper.


	3. The second half

Chapter 3: A second half  
Summary:  
Melkor's bored. That never ends well.  
(Originally posted: 2015-09-25)

* * *

Melkor was sitting patiently on a pillow, watching his brother try to convince Varda to tell them where the second bowl was hidden. Sadly it seemed it was a hard task - Varda's will was stronger than one could expect it to be. Manwë was smiling at her and holding her hand, whispering some sweet words to her, but she was but chuckling and shaking her head. Suddenly she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him - a wise way to make him shut up.

Melkor was bored. And his boredom was growing rapidly. Manwë and Varda seemed to have fun together, but listening to their talk and watching them wasn't fun for Melkor. He put the empty bowl aside and wandered off the room to look for the second part of their birthday gift himself.

He went to the room where birds were resting. Manwë was bringing wounded ones here to heal and then return home. Now there were but a few of those flying beasts, bu they were boring owls and magpies. Melkor hoped Manwë'd bring a parrot or another colorful bird one day soon. He looked around the room, but it was entirely sweets-free.  
The Ainu let his tiny feet carry him to an another room - this time it was Elbereth's study - full of bookshelves, maps and scrolls. There was a whole table under a wall where someone organized many vessels and tubes made from glass into a complicated structures and labirynths. They had various shapes, some tubes were spinning or twisting in many directions just to end up in a big bowl. Everything there was looking like a thing a hiccuping glassmaker could do. In some of the vessels there was some colorful stuff (mostly liquid) green, blue, orange or white. Observing all those things made Melkor almost forget about the mysterious birthday gift (which could be a next big bowl of delicious chocolate) But soon he left the chamber - Varda's tools were not too fascinating because the liquids weren't even exploding.

Then Melkor wandered into Eönwë's room, so tidy and ascetic. The Maia was meditating, floating in the air high above a big pillow with his legs folded under his body and his multiple wings half-opened behind his back. It seemed he was focused on something really hard. He wasn't responding to Melkor's words so the small Ainu grew angry and put on the top of the pillow a farting pillow - Eönwë surely wouldn't notice it until it'd be too late.

He wanted to wait and witness Eönwë finishing his meditation and slowly falling on the pillows, but he felt it'd not be wise to be around Eönwë without Manwë behing whom he could hide. Also Eönwë's room was a barren desert when it came to desserts.  
So he ran away and followed down the corridor. Then he wandered into Ilmarë's place. It was comfy, much similar to Varda's sleeping and resting chamber. Pillows were laying on a big carpet and Ilmarë between them. She was reading a book, but lifted her head when she heard him enter.

"Hello, Melkor," the Maia said, politely.

"Oh, good that I found you!" Melkor suddenly had an idea and without thinking decided to follow his crazy plan. "Varda says that you should give to me Manwë's birthday gift. She decided to give our gifts to us today so we'd not wait any day longer. Quickly, before Manwë eats my chocolate," he added impatiently.

"Oh, don't worry, the bowl will refill at dawn every day," the Maia stood up. "Just let me put the book aside and we can go for the gift for Manwë."

Well, that was easy, thought Melkor, walking just behind Ilmarë. The Maia believed him that he really was sent by Varda. It made him smile widely while walking.  
His smile grew even bigger when Ilmarë led him into the great library and handed to him a huge bowl of white chocolate.

And the best thing was this one would refill each day as well.


	4. A dark and stormy night

Chapter 4: A dark and stormy night  
(Originally posted: 2015-10-09)

* * *

It was a dark and stormy night. It wasn't helping that the clouds were below the top of Taniquetil - the lightnings were striking upwards and there were many other things related to electricity, the nature of the clouds and the air (Manwë was trying to explain to him this stuff from time to time, but Melkor wasn't paying too much attention). And above the dark clouds there was but the deep abyss of the void between the stars, black holes and other stuff Varda liked. It was hard to tell what was more scary.

Ilmarin was silent and almost dark. Only here and there Melkor could see a dot of light - one of Varda's shinnimg balls floating in the air. The little Ainu was walking rather quickly, his night robe practically floating behind him as he was crossing the darker parts of the corridors between the balls of light. He wasn't afraid of the darkness. But the feeling of being alone was hard to bear. Waking up because of the great thunder and realize you're alone in a wing of a big house wasn't nice as well. Melkor needed to find someone to talk to. He couldn't return now to his bed - it was surely cold by now and there was no one to hold him in a warm embrace and keep him feel safe and guarded from any nightmare he could have.

The Maiar were gone, probably doing something on the surface or between the stars. They were often leaving, having a lot of duties and even more things they liked to do after finishing their work. Manwë was having fun with the storm. The only one who could chase the loneliness away could be only the Star Queen.

Melkor stopped in the doorway to her bedchamber and looked into the dark room. She was there, he could sense her presence. It seemed she had decided to leave the physical shape for a while - a rare thing for her and the rest of the Ainur. They were very careful not to approach any of the Children and other beings without a fana. Melkor stepped in and looked around.

The shapes were hidden in the bright light. One couldn't look directly at the untold horror filling the room. There was nothing like it on Arda - the colors were shifting: from gamma rays to the radio waves and back again, up and down the whole spectrum. Tentacles of fotons were floating around, dancing as if there was some wind Melkor couldn't feel. Warmth and energy were radiating from the creature inside the room, black matter was filling the air until it seemed to be too thick to breathe it. The air smelled like the melody of silver bells mixed with a few tones of a harp. The sounds filling the chamber were echoing the smell of burning plasma and brownies.  
"Hi, Varda. Can I sleep here tonight?"

The presence didn't move or change (well, it was changing all the time, but it seemed Melkor's words didn't make it change the way of changing). The overwhelming feeling of being observed by something what didn't have eyeballs per se (or any other visible parts which could work as it's eyes) flooded the little child. Melkor touched the sounds and listenend to the smell inside the room before taking one more step forward. A limb of light closed the door behind his back.

"Did you eat all the brownies?"


End file.
